


Wheelie Chairs and Crushes

by stark2ash



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Demisexual Tony Stark, Past Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Steve Rogers is Not a Virgin, Steve is the cool uncle, Tony is a dad, brief mention of Clint/Coulson
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-01
Updated: 2018-08-01
Packaged: 2019-06-20 04:52:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15526449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stark2ash/pseuds/stark2ash
Summary: Peter has a crush, and he wants to know what real love feels like. Naturally, he goes to Tony.





	Wheelie Chairs and Crushes

Peter asks him about how to deal with a crush one day and he freezes. The kid is just sitting there, waiting for him to swoop in confidently and give him some awkward yet fatherly advice and he fucking freezes, because why would Peter come to him of all people? He’s Tony goddamn Stark, known playboy who can charm and manipulate people into his bed without a second thought. And he tells Peter that (with less words and more confidence), and Peter cautiously reminds him that he hasn’t brought anyone back from parties in years. Which, first of all, isn’t something that he necessarily wants the kid to be noticing about him, but when he asks, Peter shrugs and mutters something about reading tabloids. But there is still the question about dealing with a crush, and he’s going to need clarification, because all the interactions he’s had involved alcohol and drugs of varying illegality. He’s been clean for years, but he wasn’t quite sure where the line between desire and intoxication was. Pepper had been, well, Pepper had been his rock, and when they realized that they’d be better off as close friends, no feelings were hurt. Everything was fine, for once in his life, and he was better off dealing with the spider kid and the rest of the team than worrying about how his day job was affecting his romantic life. 

Speaking of the spider kid, he was still going on about this girl, and Tony needed to get out of his head before the kid exploded of nerves and excitement.

“Whoa whoa whoa, hold up,” Tony frowned as he held up his hands. “Slow down, start from the beginning.”

Peter, to his credit, tries. “You know MJ right she’s my friend well, kind of my friend I guess – but when I look at her my stomach gets all tight and I feel hot and I’m just realizing that you’re my boss and this is a weird conversation to be having but I wanted to make sure it was normal and not a spider thing and I guess I figured you’d know?” He looks up at Tony hesitantly, not out of breath at all. 

“Yeah kid, I’m sure it’s normal. I can test you if you want, but sounds like the typical stuff – butterflies in your stomach and all that jazz”. Tony waives his hand noncommittally, and turns back to his project. Thor kept breaking his comm devices, and he couldn’t figure out how. They were built to withstand his highest battle voltage, and the guy had even come in for strength testing to see how much force the thing would have to withstand. The new ones were supposedly Thor-proof, but for every one he made, it came back after the battle destroyed with a “sorry! :)” note attached.

“Mister Stark?? Did you hear me?” He hummed, silently asking to repeat the question. “Did you ever have a crush on someone?”

Tony snorted. “Kid, come on. I dated Pepper for three years, of course I’ve had a crush.”

“No, I mean when you were my age.” Peter had taken to spinning in a wheelie chair, staring up at the ceiling. “Ya know, like a schoolboy crush or something. Ever get the hots for anyone?”

“First of all, I never want to hear that phrase ever again.”

“What, get the hots for someone?” Peter looks up at him innocently.

“Stop while you’re ahead, Parker.”

A small huff of annoyance. “Fine. But the question still stands.”

“Great, discussing my teenage love life with my intern. Exactly how I wanted my afternoon to go.” He gave up on Thor’s comm device. “There was a guy named Michael. I sat behind him in calc 2. His hair was shiny and I always wanted to touch it, and his glasses accented his eyes really well. But I was a grade-A asshole who alienated everyone, so I never did touch his hair.” He sighed. It really had been some good fucking hair. Conditioner ads would kill for hair that shiny. “There were a few others, but none really stood out until Pepper. She just made me comfortable in ways that I’d never felt before. Like I could just sit down and talk about my day without censoring myself, or beat her in Mario Kart without losing out on an important business partner.”

“Mister Stark that’s cool and all but that’s really just friend love. Like me and Ned.” He gestured to his phone. “We’re going to finish the lego death star tonight, and it’s fun hanging out with him. Even though I, like, have superpowers, he makes me feel safer, I guess. Friend love.” Peter blushed, but kept spinning in the chair. “But with MJ I can see us living together and getting married and having kids? I guess?”

“Wow, Pete, didn’t have you pegged as a teenage girl, but congrats! Let me guess, you have a Pinterest board of wedding ideas.”

“Stop teasing, Mister Stark, I’m being serious.”

“I’m not the one doing wheelie chair donuts in my workshop.”

Peter stopped the chair abruptly and swayed a little, regaining his balance. “Ok, but seriously. Is this what love feels like?”

Tony paused. He’d seen love plenty of times, when Phil sat next to Clint’s bedside in medical after nasty fights, the way Bucky stared at Steve during team movie nights, how Steve polished his shield every night before placing it on its stand near the door (that’s right Steve, he knew about that and he was Judging You). There was the way that Rhodey had looked at that one girl from junior year, in a way that he could only describe as hungry. He’d felt that with Pepper, too, after four years as his PA turned into a relationship.

But he wasn’t about to ask the kid if he wanted to rip the girl’s clothes off. That was taking the familiarity of the conversation a bit too far.

Love wasn’t – it wasn’t one night stands and photos of girls leaving his house in the same clothes they wore the day before, he knew that much. It wasn’t like he was even really attracted to all of them, but there was a reputation to upkeep (and if no one knew that the rep started when he was eighteen and drunk out of his mind, well, it wasn’t a problem). Watching them dance and tracing their curves with his eyes wasn’t unpleasant, they were all beautiful women, but taking them home seemed more like a chore than anything else. But that had all stopped with Pepper. She was comfortable with him, always ready to snuggle and call him out on his bullshit when everyone else just watched him self-destruct. Sharing a bed with her felt natural and warm, and there was someone to wrap their arms around him when he woke up gasping for breath. Of course, he couldn’t blame her for not being able to keep up with his issues; after all, even he couldn’t sometimes. So they took a break that turned into a breakup with both sides okay with it, even if they sometimes wondered what could have been.

“Mister Stark?”

But back to the matter at hand.

He probably wasn’t the best person to be describing love to the kid, but there had to be someone more family-friendly that could talk to Peter. He didn’t want to corrupt the kid. 

“Hey Friday? Can you tell Steve that he’s needed down here?”


End file.
